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September 13—October 25, 2014

Solo Show by Gediminas Akstinas at Art in General (NYC)

The Gardens and Art in General are pleased to announce a solo exhibition by a Lithuanian artist Gediminas Akstinas on view at Art in General’s Musée Miniscule from September 13– October 25, 2014. This is the fifth and the last exhibition in The Gardens’ yearlong curatorial residency at Art in General.

Gediminas Akstinas (b. 1961, lives and works in Vilnius) is a sculptor whose artistic practice is characterised by the combination of the formalist and conceptual approaches, an investigation of the possibilities of representation of the everyday life as well as tackling the resultant tension between realism and abstraction. Akstinas’ work range from big scale site-specific sculptural objects, extending the architecture of the chosen space (“Carriage”, 1998) to small hand-made portable objects, sorts of interpretations of seemingly domestic things analysing relations between form and function and the principles of site specificity as well as paradoxes accompanying them (“Shelf-pupils”, 1990, “Bench”, 2012). The consistent analysis of the potential of the object is the important feature in Akstinas’ oeuvre, resulting in the creation of more than a bunch of series of works and life-long projects.

For this exhibition Akstinas made a series of watercolours (2014), which continues the previous serial body of work, dating the end of the 80’s. The work features a domestic, mechanically repetitive object (a cup) and it’s different correlations created especially for the space of Musée Miniscule after more than twenty years brake. Here seeing is being understood as the act of mind and not the one of an eye: with the use of a particularly formalist expression the questions of the creation and perception of the image are being raised, aiming to avoid any associative or narrative connections at the same time pointing to the tautological side of this purpose. In this series no drawing is closer to an ‘original’, but rather every cup is a fixation of the specific time and individual implications of the author. Therefore, thinking of the image is way more relevant than the image itself in these ‘cup’ series – a cup becomes an event instead of a figure.

Curated by Inesa Pavlovskaitė Brašiškė and Gerda Paliušytė.

Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. Art in General was founded in 1981 and in its 30 years, the organization has emerged as one of New York City’s leading nonprofit arts organizations. Art in General fulfills its mission in a variety of ways, including the organization and presentation of exhibitions, hosting a national and international artist residency program, and through regular public programs and membership events.
Opening is on Saturday, September 13, 6-8 pm.
Art in General, 79 Walker St., NYC.

August 30—October 1, 2014

Chris Evans: Clods, Diplomatic Letters

With contributions from Arūnas Gelūnas and Rein Raud.

Curated by Gerda Paliušytė.

Photos

Photo by Joe Wood

Photo by Chris Evans

Press release

The Gardens presents a new work from CLODS, Diplomatic Letters (2012–ongoing), a series in which drawings of invasive plants are solicited from members of the international diplomatic community. The drawings are photographed, inverted and printed as silver bromides. The photographs (Diplomatic Letters) have, as their counterpart, a series of concrete forms (CLODS). Each CLOD, varies in size, has at least one hole, and bears the traces of its facture process: the chunk is first modelled in clay, then cast in concrete. Hollowly echoing urban planning, the CLOD mimics the concrete lump left by the removal of a post or a pipe.

Additions to the series, CLODS, Diplomatic Letters (2014) are often accompanied by commissioned texts. For this presentation, the curator of the exhibition, Gerda Paliušytė commissioned If Anything, a Synecdoche by Estonian scholar and author Rein Raud.

The work will be permanently installed at the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania following this exhibition at The Gardens.

The show is supported by Ministry of Culture of The Republic of Lithuania.

Chris Evans (1967, Eastrington, UK) lives and works in London. Evans’ work is characterized by the realisation of unsolicited assignments and evolves through conversations with people from a broad range of professions – people selected in relation to their symbolic or public role. Recently this has included the directors of a luxury jewelry company, the editors of Morning Star newspaper, an anonymous philanthropist and members of the international diplomatic community. Collaboration becomes entangled along invisible paths of consultation and negotiation, as social processes become crystallised in art objects.
Recent solo exhibitions include CLODS, Diplomatic Letters, Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam (2012); Goofy Audit, Luettgenmeijer, Berlin (2011); The Cell That Doesn’t Believe In The Mind That It’s Part Of, Marres, Maastricht (2010);

Currently exhibiting as part of A Needle Walks into a Haystack, Liverpool Biennial.

August 2—24, 2014

Ryan Mrozowski: Flotsam

Opening: 2 August 2014 at 6pm at The Gardens (Konstitucijos pr. 12A, Vilnius).

Organised by Art in General (New York).

Flotsam consists of four frames, or ‘apertures’, in which single book pages are suspended, each lit from behind by a single light bulb. These pages happen to have images—printed on both sides of the paper—that when placed in front of the light bulb, coalesce into a single, new ‘third’ image, or an instantaneous unintended collage. Much as is suggested by the exhibition title, which brings to mind images of miscellaneous debris or cargo that happens to wash up on shore at the same time, these double-sided pages are ‘coincidental’ artworks, found and collected by the artist in recent years. This body of work reflects Mrozowski’s larger interest in how we view objects and images that predate the Internet, the role of image editing software such as Photoshop, hidden messages, and the potential for latent meaning to develop in our immediate surroundings. For this project at The Gardens, Mrozowski will use book pages sourced locally in Vilnius.

Ryan Mrozowski is an interdisciplinary painter whose work has been recently exhibited at various venues including Chapter NY, Know More Games, Pierogi, Ziehersmith, ACME, Halsey McKay, and Daniel Weinberg Gallery. His work has been written about in The Los Angeles Times, Artforum, the NY Observer, Modern Painters, BOMB Magazine, and has been featured on the covers of New American Paintings and McSweeneys. Mrozowski received his BFA from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and his MFA from Pratt Institute in 2005. Mrozowski was born in 1981, Indiana, PA, and lives and works in New York.

Art in General

Founded in 1981, Art in General gives local and international artists the opportunity to create and present new work by providing them with a high level of organizational and conceptual support including artist fees, production fees, exhibition space, a solo exhibition, promotion, and opportunities to engage with audiences through free online and public programs.

General Support of Art in General is provided by General Hardware Manufacturing Inc.; the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; The Greenwich Collection; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; Agnes Gund; and by individuals. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Ryan Mrozowski’s project is generously supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

April 19—May 31, 2014

Marija & Petras Olšauskai: Miss Bird

“But what can I write! Such words as jets, fountains, waves, spray convey some idea of order and regularity, but here there was none . . . . It was all confusion, commotion, force, terror, glory, majesty, mystery, and even beauty. “

The Gardens and Art in General and are pleased to present Miss Bird, an exhibition by Marija & Petras Olšauskai, on view from April 19 – May 31, 2014. This is the fourth exhibition in The Gardens’ yearlong curatorial residency at Art in General.

Petras Olšauskas (b. 1987) is an artist living and working in Vilnius, Lithuania. Olšauskas studies sculpture at Vilnius Academy of Arts. Recent group shows: Exhibition on Stage God from Machine, Vilnius (2013), and Anne, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2013).

Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. Art in General was founded in 1981 and in its 30 years, the organization has emerged as one of New York City’s leading nonprofit arts organizations. Art in General fulfills its mission in a variety of ways, including the organization and presentation of exhibitions, hosting a national and international artist residency program, and through regular public programs and membership events.

29 April—16 May

“Ditch Plains”. A film by Loretta Fahrenholz

“Ditch Plains” (2013) presents an apocalyptic vision of a networked city in which the choreographed movements of the Ringmaster Dance crew belong to the only bodies left alive. Taking its cues from the disaster movie genre, but slowly dissolving its narrative, the film reveals how terror is manifested and consumed by society.

Opening screening Tuesday 29 April, 7pm at the Vilnius Planetarium Cinema Hall. Film is screened at The Gardens till the 16 May 2014, Thursday and Friday 4-6pm and by appointment.

February 15—March 14, 2014

Frank Chu

World view and interests

Frank Chu holds Bill Clinton, Grover Cleveland, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and other former US Presidents responsible for working with the populations of the 12 GALAXIES and directing the CIA, FBI, Universal Studios, and other agencies and corporations to embezzle royalties owed to him as the star of a television and movie series called “The Richest Family.” Chu believes he has starred in the series since childhood, which has been a major success in other galaxies. Yet because the syndicated series is shot with top-secret invisible cameras, Chu claims he was unaware of it until he received telepathic messages from supportive former KGB agents and Soviet presidents in the mid-1990s.
Chu is strongly interested in television reporters and newscasters for the publicity he requires to inform the world of the injustices committed against him. He hopes that this wave of publicity will cause a public outcry and lead to more than 20 billion USD in compensation.
Since 1998, Chu has protested seven-days-a-week in downtown San Francisco.

January 24 – March 15, 2014

Solo Show by Mindaugas Navakas The Coat 3 at Art in General (NYC)

The Gardens and Art in General are pleased to announce a solo exhibition by an acclaimed Lithuanian artist Mindaugas Navakas on view at Art in General’s Musée Miniscule from January 24 – March 15, 2014. This is the third exhibition in The Gardens’ yearlong curatorial residency at Art in General.

For this exhibition, Navakas created The Coat 3, a sculpture-turned-installation, made specifically to fit the diminutive proportions of Musée Miniscule. This work is a hybrid piece, nodding to both Navakas’s previous serial bodies of work, The Tents and The Coats, respectively.

Creating monumental, socially provocative works often made for public space, Navakas’s oeuvre refuses lyricism, in contrast to the figurative and decorative tradition of Lithuanian sculpture. A master of form and scale, Navakas works primarily with intractable materials such as steel, stone, concrete and iron. His work investigates the tension between the sculptor and his material, between the object and its environment, and the relationship of that object to its viewer. Attracted by the symbolism and social charge inherent in the mass produced objects, Navakas exploits these objects’ quotidian function, re-interpreting them into archetypical structures.

Curated by Inesa Pavlovskaitė and Gerda Paliušytė

Mindaugas Navakas (b. 1952) is an artist currently living and working in Vilnius, Lithuania. Since the beginning of his career in 1977, Navakas has been one of the most provocative and productive Lithuanian artists, presenting his contextual/conceptual sculptures at various exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. Navakas has participated in many local and international large-scale art projects including Lithuanian National Pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennial in 1999, the South Korea Gwangju biennale in 1995, “Frieze Art Fair” in 2009. He has also created many site-specific works in the public space: The Hook at the Art League, Vilnius, Lithuania (1994); Reconnaissance, Helersdorf, Berlin (1997–1998); and Big Fish in Tranoy/Hammaroy, Norway (2006). His awards include the Herder Prize, Baltic Assembly premium, and Lithuanian National prize in Culture and Arts for achievements in culture and arts. Navakas has been teaching at the Sculpture Department of the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts since 1990.

Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. Art in General was founded in 1981 and in its 30 years, the organization has emerged as one of New York City’s leading nonprofit arts organizations. Art in General fulfills its mission in a variety of ways, including the organization and presentation of exhibitions, hosting a national and international artist residency program, and through regular public programs and membership events.
Opening is on Saturday, January 24, 6-8 pm.
Art in General, 79 Walker St., NYC.

15 December—1 January, 2014

The Gardens are happy to announce a screening of a video made by two Lithuanian artists Liudvikas Buklys and Gintaras Didžiapetris featuring Nicholas Matranga in a main role. The three artists are working in a close collaboration for the first time, though they have already met each other in the streets of Vilnius and collective exhibitions. At the moment the video is being shown in the group exhibitions Underground at KIM? in Riga and Vilnius Pavilion at NCCA in Moscow.

Hinting on the formal qualities reminiscent of those of the Structural film, this video is a product of digital environment in the age of celebration and repetition: “and time here is divided into bands of light”. A man under a name (or a nickname) Korumpas lives through such contemporary conditions in the city of Vilnius. His name is an artists-made neologism standing for a corrupted man or even the corruption itself. Nicholas Matranga comments on the genesis of the character he impersonates: “At some time, in the early 90s, I was approached by a scheme to manipulate telephone calling cards. My plan, and that of my associates, was to skim minutes off of these pre-paid long distance telephone cards; by buying in minutes in bulk from the telephone company we could make great savings, and not one that we would pass off to the consumer. We intended for the cards to overcharge on the minutes being used, and thereby retaining as many minutes as possible for ourselves and thus allowing us to sell even more cards with fewer and fewer minutes.”

23 November – 20 December, 2013

The Gardens are happy to announce the two shows by Laura Kaminskaitė and Augustas Serapinas taking place simultaneously at BWA Warszawa gallery in Warsaw.

Laura Kaminskaite (b. 1984, lives and works in Vilnius) – an artist whose oeuvre is mainly focused on the phenomenon of exhibition, while playing with and within it’s structure and highlighting the approach of spectator as well as the clues of perception. The artworks from the artist’s previous exhibitions will meet with the new ones and overlap to create the character of a particular situation – “Exhition”.

For the most part of his artistic practice Augustas Serapinas (b. 1990, lives and works in Vilnius) works in situ, exploring and researching places, and employing the materials he finds there for the subsequent site-specific projects, be it an installation or an experience. For his solo show “Jakubowska 16/3 – Jakubowska 16/3″ in BWA Gallery an artist will create a new piece, related to the location of the gallery: the history of the building and a story of its inhabitant.

November 7 – December 21, 2013

Marija & Petras Olšauskai at Art in General (NYC)

The Gardens are pleased to present the first of two presentations by Lithuanian artists Marija & Petras Olšauskai, on view in Art in General’s Musée Miniscule from November 7 – December 21, 2013. This marks the second exhibition in a yearlong curatorial residency with The Gardens.

The Gardens’ first exhibition in the Musée Miniscule, Antanas Gerlikas’s The Picnic, coalesced modernist imagination and dreams into the presumed form of a musical instrument. Invited to make the first contribution to the Musée, artists and siblings Marija & Petras fills the room with light. They created a show in disguise of a singular object, sent from Vilnius to New York. A gesture of transition, their first exhibition embodies past conversations and dreams, nods to their future exhibition, and embraces every second of the present.

Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. Art in General was founded in 1981 and in its 30 years, the organization has emerged as one of New York City’s leading nonprofit arts organizations. Art in General fulfills its mission in a variety of ways, including the organization and presentation of exhibitions, hosting a national and international artist residency program, and through regular public programs and membership events.